Property management firm, owner ordered to repay $2.5M

Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh’s Consumer Protection Division has settled charges against a Montgomery County property management company and its owner, both accused of taking nearly $2.5 million from homeowner and condominium associations.

Jason Barry Oseroff of Olney and Evergreen Management LLC of Silver Spring must pay all the money the company owes consumers and pay penalties of $300,000 to the division, the Attorney General’s Office announced in a news release Wednesday. The penalties may be reduced if full refunds are made to consumers, according to the release. In addition, the settlement requires that Oseroff stop managing condominiums and homeowners associations and that, if he ever gains signatory authority over bank accounts other than his own or his family’s, he must provide the division with a $100,000 surety bond.

“Property management companies are entrusted with the funds of homeowners. When they use those funds for their own benefit, they violate that trust and break the law as well,” Frosh said in the news release. “The actions of Oseroff and Evergreen have caused harm to many individuals and to the financial health of their clients.”

A message left at a number listed for Oseroff was not immediately returned Wednesday.

Oseroff and his company were charged with violations of the Maryland Condominium and Maryland Homeowners Association Acts and the Consumer Protection Act.

Evergreen and Oseroff were accused of improperly taking money from Arbor West Community Association, Brandywine Country HOA, Cedar Pointe Community Association, Charwood HOA, Glenn Station HOA, Largo Town Center Condominiums, Marlton Section 10 HOA, Watkins Park at Kettering HOA and Woodland Bowie Condominium.

According to a statement of charges filed in April, Oseroff and his father, Ivan Oseroff, who died in 2017, took money from the associations’ bank accounts for their own benefit instead of providing the services for which Evergreen was hired. When associations were unable to pay their bills, the Oseroffs transferred funds from other associations’ accounts to them, the charges say. The Oseroffs failed to provide copies of bank records to the membership of the organizations, despite repeated requests, and even provided false financial records, according to the charges.

Homeowners’ associations and condominiums that are owed refunds from Oseroff and Evergreen Management can call the Consumer Protection Division hotline at 410-528-8662 or 888-743-0023.